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Privacy is Safety: Amazon’s Tech Against Trafficking Summit
Holding a plate of untouched endive hors d’oeuvres, I gazed out the 16th floor window of Amazon HQ at the Tech Against Trafficking Summit. From the skyscraper’s towering view, I could see the street down below where I slept in warehouse doorways as a homeless teenager. A few blocks down I could see the Westin hotel where I was raped at age 14 by a group of invenstment bankers visiting from New York. I tried to be optimistic when I registered to attend the conference as an audience member and child trafficking survivor. Instead, my fears about tech moving fast and breaking things were confirmed. Only two trafficking survivors were invited to speak as panelists out of approximately forty non-survivors including government leaders and bureaucrats, law enforcement, international NGO directors, tech executives, and project managers from Amazon, Facebook (Meta), Instagram, Google, and Microsoft.
During a Q&A, I asked what role unions and workers’ rights had in discussions about forced labor. The panelists from Amazon and Google wouldn’t look at me. A representative from the French Ministry of Labor explained that forced labor is illegal.
Prioritizing safety over privacy was repeatedly emphasized. Amazon and Ring presenters celebrated giving police video footage from neighborhoods without warrants. No panelist mentioned…
